


Say My Name

by showmethelions (sightandsound3733)



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Fever, Fever Dreams, Gen, Hurt Shiro (Voltron), Implied Relationships, Injury Recovery, Team as Family
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-31
Updated: 2017-08-31
Packaged: 2018-12-22 04:21:06
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,996
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11959605
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sightandsound3733/pseuds/showmethelions
Summary: The Castle's malfunctioned again, leaving an injured Paladin a little worse for wear.





	Say My Name

"You can't keep doing this."

Pidge doesn't look up from her laptop. If she doesn't look up she doesn't have to respond. Eye contact is key right now, or rather the lack of it. She scrolls down on the screen, tapping away at the keyboard so she can alter a line of code that's stalling. 

A heavy sigh.

"Pidge." 

Nope. So not looking up. That would be stupid, the absolute biggest mistake she could make. She’s a genius, she’s not gonna to look up and make stupid mistakes. She's made enough in the last few days, that's why they're in this damn mess and why—No. 

Not getting into it. 

Pidge blinks away her doubt, lips quirking to the side in a frown. A gentle hand lands on her shoulder, a warm and familiar touch. 

"Pidge. Come on."

She shrugs off the touch without looking up, looking would be a mistake, remember? Looking would let her see hurt in eyes that should never hold it, she’ll see it and feel worse, she'll break a little more. She can't handle hurting them when she's already— _ No. _ Stop.

"She's not going to listen. She's stubborn to a fucking fault." The last bit is pointed, sharper. Meant to egg a reaction out of her. 

"Like you're one to talk!" Another sigh. Heavy. Tired. 

"Guys--" There's a new string of code that's failing. Why does it keep trailing off like this? Why can't she catch it? It's slipping through her fingers--

"We have to do something, she's going to-"

"I don't like this anymore than you do okay Lance? I hate this! But what are we supposed to do?" Another fucking bug, just three lines down! How did she let this happen? How did this go unnoticed? Why didn't she-?

"Guys?"

"I don't know! But we can't keep letting her-"

"Guys!"

"Pidge?" 

There it is. 

There’s the voice she's been waiting for. 

Blinking, Pidge tears her gaze away from the code, fingers faltering in their ceaseless typing. Allura stands in the doorway of the common room, eyes sad, distressed. "Pidge, I’m so sorry, but we need you again. He’s awake."

“Yes, of course.” She doesn't hesitate to set the her laptop aside, code unfinished, unsaved. 

Hunk bites his lip as she nods and pushes to her feet, as she moves quickly to join Allura at the door, moving past Keith and Lance, standing sentinel, mid argument, without so much as a passing glance. 

Looking at them would be a mistake afterall. 

Pidge pushes her glasses up her nose as Allura leads her from the rec room, down the hallway they've made four, five trips through already today. "Are you alright?" Allura asks softly, watching Pidge comb her fingers through her hair, musses it up, makes it stand a little bit more on end. 

"I'm fine," Pidge mutters without looking back at her. Big mistake, big mistake. "How is he?"

"No better, no worse," Allura sighs. Pidge sees the heavy droop of her shoulders out of the corner of her eye. 

"Do we have a timestamp on Coran rerouting power to the pods?" She asks, rolling up the sleeves of her swearshirt, just a bit, just enough to get her wrists her bare, her hands clear. "I'm having so much trouble with the code and I don't know why. I'm still hoping he can get things going sooner than I can reroute the entire mainframe but I don't-"

"Coran is working as hard as he can, Pidge. We're going to try again in a little bit," Thin, delicate fingers reach and curl at her shoulder. She doesn't shove these off, and she lets her eyes close for just a moment. Lets herself feel the cracks in her armor. 

Allura squeezes a little tighter, a little pulse of warmth, an attempt at comfort. 

A low rumble resonates through her from that special, ever present place at the back of her mind. The Green Lion isn’t happy with all this, not at all. Pidge swallows back her unease and takes a deep breath. She’s fine, she can do this. She has to.

They come to a stop, just outside the infirmary. From inside there is a stangled yell, a cry of panic and pain. It comes muffled through the door but it slices through them both like a knife.

"You really don't have to keep do this," Allura murmurs, fingers pulsing tighter on her shoulder. "Pidge we can always try sedating him-"

"He would hate that," Pidge shakes her head, shakes Allura off, reaching for the door. She's stepping inside before Allura can point out that what she was doing was probably just as bad. 

Doesn’t matter though. Shiro’s waiting for her. 

He lays on a cot inside, pale and stricken, skin fever flushed and burning. His eyes are wild and bright now that they’re open again, his torso is bare and heavily bandaged, and his mind is addled with pain—oh,  _ oh, _ she would do anything to take it all away from him. 

Coran kneels at his bedside, smoothing back sweat damp hair, murmuring softly to him, one eye on a diagnostic screen feeding him readouts from the faulty healing pod system frame. 

He looks up at her approach, lips quirking into a deeper frown. Pidge looks back, and calms. Coran is safe to look at. Coran won't try to stop her. He understands. "Number one," he murmurs, looking at Pidge, and speaking to Shiro. "I'm going to step away for a moment, but there's someone here to see you."

Shiro groans, though whether it's in pain or in response to Coran they don't know. "I don't..." he croaks, voice weak and cracking. "I- Gotta go, can't stay down..."

"Shiro," Pidge calls, voice soft, quiet enough that it doesn't matter that her voice is pitched wrong for this. Or at least it hasn’t mattered yet. "You gotta relax man. You're only gonna make things worse, Flyboy." It's the nickname that catches his attention, that brings too bright, and hazy eyes reeling to rest on her. Shiro's brow furrows as she steps closer, confusion and cautious, fragile hope brimming in his gaze.

"...Matt?"

"Yeah man," Pidge offers him a crooked smile, settling at his bedside. "Heard you were being a pain. Asking for me and shit. You just saw me before, you can't have missed me already." She keeps her voice easy and light, molding her brother's cadence all too easily. 

Shiro blinks at her blankly, trying to piece meaning and memory to what she's saying, but eventually that doesn't matter, the want to believe her wins out. "Matt," his voice breaks, he's reaching for her. "Matt, Matt I don't- What happened, you were gone... they took you and I couldn't-"

"Shhh," Pidge soothes, taking his hand in her own, holding tight like a vice. "I'm here. I'm fine. We're all good." She forces a pause, because Matt would, and then a laugh, soft and fleeting. "Well not you so much. Which is why you gotta rest and relax. Can't get better if you're keyed up like this."

"You're okay?" Shiro asks, because of course that's what he focuses on. 

"I'm okay," Pidge promises, swallowing back the quiver that could break her voice too easily. "I'm fine. I'd be better if you would  _ rest _ , Takashi. Close your eyes and relax. I'm here."

"You're here," Shiro breathes out, holding tighter to her hand, tension smoothing out from around his eyes. He repeats that himself a few times, a babble of his own reassurance. Once he's no longer fighting it, sleep takes him all too easily. Pidge bites hard on her lip to stay silent as calm breaks slow over Shiro's face, as new beads of sweat dampen his brow, the fever continues to burn. 

He's asleep within minutes, unconsciousness a blessing, and Pidge breathes out a soft sigh as his grip on her hand goes weak. 

"That's never going to get easier," she whispers, to herself, not caring that Allura and Coran can hear her clear as day. She swallows back her tears, presses the lightest of kisses to Shiro's brow before pulling away. Allura watches her with sad eyes she still won’t— _ can’t _ meet, Coran has his focus centered on his screens, working tirelessly to get even one pod up an running after the most recent castle malfunction, more widespread and damaging than any other has been so far. They need a pod running, they need to get Shiro better. There's only so much they can do to keep this fever at bay. 

"Come find me when he wakes up," Pidge tells them, parroting back the phrase that's made a home on her lips in the last twelve hours or so. "You know where I'll be." 

"Pidge-"

She's walking out of the room before they can stop her.

Stupid mistake... stupid mistake... If she'd been quicker in that battle, had covered her own ass better then Shiro wouldn't be hurt. If she had been paying attention he wouldn't have needed to knock her aside. If she had been just a second faster, just an inch better then she wouldn’t have made such a stupid mistake, wouldn’t have cost them something so dear.

But at least she can help. She can soothe him and help him calm and sleep. She can do this, and she would do this, even when it hurt so bad.  


Pidge makes her way back to the rec room where the others are waiting. She can hear their voices, quiet and quick, engaged in the same back and forth she left them in. Doesn’t matter what they’re saying though, they all fall silent at her approach.    
  
“Pidge.” Keith. He’s moving toward the door before she can get two steps inside and he’s got her in his arms before she can even think to avoid him. They’ve done this every time, him and Lance and Hunk, trading off meeting her at the door, bundling her close and fast, and she’s squirmed out of their touch every single time. 

She’s starting to again, closing her eyes tight and she tries to fight his grip, she has work to do, code to fix,she has to get the mainframe rerouted, has to help Shiro. She made such a mistake, such a big mistake and--”

“Katie,” her name falls from Keith’s lips with such careful hesitation and immediately she goes still. How does he know? “Katie,” Keith murmurs again, holding her tighter. “We’ve got you.”

For a moment, she is frozen. Shiro looks at her right now and sees Matt, sees her big brother, lost to him and lost to her, lost and gone and Matt could fix this, Matt could smile and laugh and he could fix this as easy as breathing and she— She’s not Matt.    
  
She’s Katie.    
  
The moment breaks and she breaks with it, going limp in Keith’s arms, a sob breaking past her lips before she can even try to wrangle it back with the others, because with the first one gone free it’s over. Her knees go weak and Keith catches her before she can hit the ground, cradles her close, and scoops her up into his arms. She shivers when his lips press to her forehead he whispers, “We’ve got you,” again.    
  
She buries her face in his chest, shaking and sobbing and Keith carries her to the couch, carries her to Hunk and Lance and into their arms. They all hold her tight and close and they’re all muttering together, she can’t pick out more than bits and pieces here and there but it doesn’t matter. They know who she is.    
  
Green purrs, finally soothed now that she’s in their arms, finally settling at the back of her mind. Pidge-- Katie sighs through her tears, curling more against the firm chest under her cheek, Hunk she thinks, she doesn’t know, and tries her hardest not to think about when Allura would come to get her next. 

**Author's Note:**

> This was my late sort of contribution to Voltron Whump Week, sort of just a thing that happened because it wouldn't leave me alone. 
> 
> Come say hi over on tumblr! showmethelions.tumblr.com


End file.
